


Fix You, Fix Us

by adrift_me



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Destroy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Post-War, Rebuilding, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 01:33:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8558047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrift_me/pseuds/adrift_me
Summary: Two broken soldiers find healing in each other. Post-War fluffiness.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vorcha_Girl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vorcha_Girl/gifts).



> For lovely vorchagirl, who surprisingly turned out to be my fic recipient :) I've never written anything with James Vega, so I hope I managed to catch something of him as well as of your lovely Shepard. Hope you enjoy~
> 
> A short fluffy story to give some conclusion to Shega post-war.

It had been a week after the Reapers destruction. The machinery in the hospital was beeping, the peace and quiet was settled. It was early morning and the Sun had burnt the horizon when Commander Shepard’s fingers twitched, making medical tech around her go wild.

“She’s alive,” she hears an almost hysterical voice, drowned in painful awakening. Darkness took over her tired mind again, but now with certainty of safety.

It took her a week to accept that safety of people and of her own was secured. It took several months to stop thinking of strategies, fighting, and by the end of half a year she almost stopped hearing voices in her dreams. In a year, she managed to recollect her shattered life and finally embark on a journey of seeking a better place.

Being back on Earth unintentionally brought back memories of childhood. Running with a gang, fighting for living in a gang… Serving the Alliance was her escape, and now she was back where she began. She didn’t quite know if she hated or craved for this nostalgic feeling.

Life went on as the Alliance tried to fix the human home planet, now full of people of all races. It was time for unity. They lived in mixed Alliance housings and worked hard to recreate connection with relays and other systems. Confusion was a part of this new community, because when their common goal was gone, a new goal had to be yet settled. And Shepard, as a war hero over and over again for all her deeds during the war, was one of the leaders. She wasn't sure she wanted it, but as it was wisely said, _she didn't want it, but was the best for the role_.

And there was a familiar face with Shepard at all times, this one straw she grasped on to stay alive and sane. James Vega, a soldier, a friend, a craved footing in a crushed reality. Come to think of it, Shepardwondered, he was just that when the Reapers were still a threat.

“Hey Lola.”

She smiled. Sometimes she wondered if it wasn’t her name, for James Vega called her this name so many times. It was one of the few things she kept after the war. _Lola_.

“James.”

Shepard turned around to see the soldier stand in the doorway of the shabby Alliance housing assigned to her. Badly damaged and badly patched up, just like Shepard herself, the housings were the only refuge for Alliance and other races’ soldiers, left on Earth post-war. Some soldiers occupied it in groups, war leaders were allowed the privilege of small private apartments. All races lived together to rebuild, mixed and united. Asari enjoyed this alien place, for it reminded them of burnt lands of Thessia. Turians and salarians learnt about this world that they knew so little of. One couldn’t be surprised by seeing a geth or a quarian or even a krogan, passing by on Earth. After all, it was their final destination in the Reaper War.

How peculiar it looked toShepard, for her memory was transfixed on her past where all the species of their galaxy were standing for their own interests.

“The docs expect to see you for another test on your biotic implant. When I ask them when your tests will be over, they just brush me off.”

“I don’t mind their meddling. Don’t you think it would be stupid to die of a messed up implant after defeating the death machines from beyond space?” she grinned and invited James to stand by her at a balcony railing. He came up slowly and leaned onto the railing with a resting force. Both Shepard and James looked down from the balcony onto the damaged road. The air was bustling with life of hovercars. There were people walking by, children playing in a small yard. A strange nostalgic wind hit Shepard as she recollected her previous stay on Earth, minutes before the Reapers arrived to tore their reality apart. It was gone now. And she couldn't believe it. She felt her shoulders shaking, her hands becoming weak and her eyes burning with tears. She breathed in deep, ignoring the prickling in the back of her head. She had to learnt to fight it. A small war against her illness.

James didn't notice her minute struggle and Shepard was glad. She breathed out and leaned onto the railing too, looking at Vega's profile.

“I don’t know if I can ever get used to it,” he said after a long pause while they were staring at the distance. “My uncle used to say that soldiers never truly walk away from the war. Guess he was right.”

Shepard couldn't agree more, still feeling dull pain in her head. She grinned, looking down at her hands.

“Well, we've earned ourselves drinks on the house in any bar. Might as well take an advantage of it,” she pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. It had been growing back quickly after the surgeries she had to go through and she secretly craved for the return of her black glossy mane.

“A drink, right,” smirked James. “Alright. A drink. So… Want to go get one? For past’s sake.”

“How about future’s sake?”

It escaped Shepard’s mouth so fast that she barely managed to realise what it was she said exactly. Her brows arched and an awkward grin made James smile in return.

“Can do that, Commander.”

***

And it started with a drink in a small bar nearby. Every day they would go there to talk and drink, to discuss old times and carefully avoiding mentioning their previous crew members or the Normandy, that never reported back this whole year. Often enough it would trouble Shepard’s sleep and she would wake up in sweat, with something cold, _fear_ , running down her spine. But as sun rose and day took over, fears slid away in shadows and James Vega was there to take Shepard’s mind off things.

He had always been there, she came to think about it. He had her back in any battle, he talked with her and supported her all throughout the final push of war. And even if he wasn’t around, he kept her mind busy with memories.

“Hey Lola, are you with me?”

Shepard looked down at her hand. There was a drink in it, and its surface reflected colourful lights of the bar they were sitting in.

“Yes. Sorry,” she smiled awkwardly and shifted in her seat.

“Are you sure you are alright? Sometimes I think when I’m around, you stop listening.”

“I… no. I listen. And look.”

Her grin didn’t escape his notice and perhaps it was this remark that made him relax in his seat and spread arms across the seat’s back. It revealed strong muscles and a handsome body, currently hidden under his old gray Alliance shirt.

“ _Look_ is okay. I like that.”

“So you were saying?..”

“Oh, right. I was contacted by an old friend of mine. We… went on a mission together. I told you about it, the one during the Collectors’ attacks.”

“I remember you saying that none of your crew survived it.”

“They didn’t. She wasn’t the crew. She was a scientist at the colony we worked at,” James’s features turned sad. He moved forward and placed both hands down on the table. “She had the intel I needed and I chose her. She lived and she worked for the Crucible all this time. She contacted me recently that she was going to Thessia and will likely never see me again.”

“It’s unfortunate but we have to come to terms with what the war dictates us.”

“I know. And I understand. What I also understand is that I should appreciate what I have close to me, before it drifts away to another system.”

His small eyes brushed her with a gentle gaze.

“This war gave many people many opportunities, but after my failure at the colony, I could never allow myself to love again. War told me, what’s the point of loving if you end up getting hurt again anyway. People die, people you care about die. Sometimes even you yourself die...”

James paused, looked at the tall glass in his hand and emptied it. Shepard watched him carefully, avoiding interrupting with words or gestures. But she knew she could relate to it. Hurt after relationship with Kaidan, she wanted nothing to do with love while war was going on. James once said so himself too. Who were they both lying to?

Shepard ran her hand in her hair. She wanted to touch a tattoo on her neck, to remind herself that she did have a memento with a hidden sense. A small tattoo of a constellation. As her fingers brushed the spot where it was, her heart seemed to grow bigger and her gaze studied James. He had no idea what was happening inside her all this time. The war pulled her back, forbade her expressing anything she felt. She knew only too well what James meant. He was still staring at his glass, now empty.

“But then I saw Tali and Garrus. They had even more possibilities to die, more than you. And it never stopped them. Have you seen Sparks when she joined us on the Normandy? Those eyes were happily flashing even from under that mask of hers. Ken and Gabby too. And yet I still didn’t believe.”

Shepard’s cheeks reddened but she listened carefully.

“Now it’s over. There is no war to tell me how to live and what to do. I’m a broken soldier, Shepard, just like you are. But I want to put us back together.”

As his hands reached out to hold hers, Shepard felt that all her broken pieces were coming closer together. James’s strong grip, his fingers, rough with training and fighting, felt like a walking stick to an invalid. She held onto it and somehow the loneliness of post-war brightened up.

She would later find herself in his arms, sitting in her Alliance assigned housing, and his head would rest on her shoulder. Shepard’s hair, pushed on the other side, revealed a bruised neck and a bleak black tattoo of a constellation.

“I never noticed it,” James said, pulling away and touching her neck gently, where an image of the stars was inked in. Shepard’s own hand reached to touch the spot.

“I had it for a while now,” she said casually, smiling. “Lyra. It’s meaningful.”

“And what _does_ it mean?”

“All in good time, Vega,” she replied and slid her arms around his neck, pulling him in a gentle kiss.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Mass Effect universe belongs to Bioware. Rennah Shepard belongs to vorchagirl.  
> Find me on [tumblr](http://a-driftamongopenstars.tumblr.com/).


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